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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Tom Baldwin

Keir Starmer’s response to the Gorton and Denton debacle should be a government that truly, finally, reflects him

Keir Starmer at a meeting of Labour party members in London, the day after the Greens won the Gorton and Denton byelection, 27 February 2026.
Keir Starmer at a meeting of Labour party members in London, the day after the Greens won the Gorton and Denton byelection, 27 February 2026. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

In a crowded and overheated bar towards the end of the evening a few months ago, I received some strange parenting advice from one of those “Labour strategist” types.

We were discussing – maybe arguing – over the government’s position on Gaza. Eventually I asked if he could provide me with a decent explanation to give my son who had shown me stuff on his phone a couple of days earlier about how Israeli army officers were still being trained by Britain’s military. “Here’s what you say to your son,” began his reply, followed by a portentous pause that made me lean in closer. “You should tell him to fuck off.”

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